Circular slicer knives are used to slice meat and other food products. In operation a slicer knife is mounted for rotation on a commercial food slicing device and a food product positioned on a reciprocating tray or carriage is brought into contact with the rotating knife via movement of the tray or carriage past the knife. When a rotating cutting edge of the slicer knife contacts the food product, a portion of the food product is removed for consumption or packaging. Exemplary food product slicers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,119,566 and 5,970,840.
Currently available slicer knives are commonly made from a single material that exhibits suitable toughness and resistance to corrosion as needed to provide a good cutting edge where the knife experiences the most loading and wear. By contrast, the interior body of the slicer knife acts primarily mount for connecting the knife to a slicer, and therefore experiences less impact loading and wear than the cutting edge and the toughness of the body portion of the knife need not be as high as at the cutting edge. As toughness increases, formability and machining can become more difficult. Accordingly, currently available slicer knives using a single material to produce both the cutting edge of the slicer knife and the interior body of the slicer knife compromise between using a material with suitable properties for the cutting edge and using a material that can still be manufactured in a commercially viable and economic manner. The use of a single high performance material to produce both the cutting edge and the interior body of a slicer knife may result in increased processing costs. For example, many manufacturers produce circular knives using hi-Carbon steel, hardening the steel and plating the steel for the purpose of corrosion resistance. The process may involve machining the knife along substantially its entire radius to achieve a desired contour.
In the case of a known two material knife as described in Dutch Patent No. 75570, the knife includes a cutting ring that is held under tension against a seat portion of a knife carrier. This two-piece knife construction poses problems with the cutting ring coming off of the knife carrier during slicing operations and with sanitation and cleanability at the interface of the two knife parts.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an improved slicer knife.